A lot can happen over the course of a day. The issue is that the average person isn't often aware of every formative experience during a 24-hour period. There's very little reason to chronicle things as mundane as walking to a flower shop or sitting in a park. Even then, these can lead to some great revelations. For Virginia Woolf, she uses one day in England to uncover the intertwining lives of two individuals. They may never be in the same room nor really share similar interests, but they're more similar than you'd expect. What Woolf ultimately achieves is something sensitive and beautiful. She finds how the mundanity of every life can be full of beautiful meaning. It may be a story that comes to an end along with the sun, but it's one of the greatest, most lasting works of modernist fiction. It gives the reader a lot to think about, creating an intimacy that not only enhances the characters but connects them to every personal experience. In "Mrs. Dalloway," everything is connected. It goes beyond the physical and into somewhere mental and even spiritual. Its profundity is enormous.
The story starts simply enough. Mrs. Dalloway wants to buy flowers. It's a gesture that's not uncommon for a woman of high society. However, this is where Woolf begins to work her magic. Almost immediately the world comes alive as Dalloway steps outside into a world that is alive with personality. Every individual she passes has their own brilliant story to share. The landmarks provide beautiful distractions from complicated thoughts. Even with indirect language, Woolf has brought the city to life and found ways to explore its essence. This isn't a story packed with physical details. There's only enough to create a concrete idea of what's around Dalloway. However, it's one that is immediately clear, existing almost like our own hometowns.
It may not seem like much, but during this time Woolf has shown how the characters will interact. She isn't one to immediately give readers hints as to whose perspective they're even reading. While it's likely to be Dalloway or Septimus, this isn't to ignore those around them. With plays on words and a web of subtle similarities, the two characters find that they have a lot in common. They each struggle with something internal - Septimus' being more mentally ill - and it becomes clear that Woolf believes nobody can fully understand another. Without her omnition, there's no way to suggest that these characters are interesting at all. There are battles inside every character, and she handles them sensitively, managing to capture a beautiful depiction of what it means to try and survive. Everyone must move forward, get flowers, or even keep their marriage intact. They may eventually go to a party, but is it all just a ploy to not feel alone?
The interesting tool is that the text is free-formed, never staying in one place for too long. It gives the reader an experience unlike any other. There are hallucinations, humor, sadness, and even philosophical debates of what it means to be alive. As Septimus sits on a bench, the reader is catapulted into a passerby's conversation. There's an effort to make the stream of consciousness feel alive. As a writer, she is obsessed with rivers and time, and they both work as a commentary on how everything is moving forward. Most chapters feature the use of clocks to signify time, showing that even if they all have different personalities and careers, they are all slaves to time. By the end, it's a story where the two characters end with a deep revelation that is subtle. Even as Woolf discusses suicidality, there is something spiritual about it that makes the bittersweetness almost profound. Some could argue that it's a commentary on her own mental health, but the simple act of respecting a man's disconnection from the world in nuanced ways gives "Mrs. Dalloway" as a text a timelessness that makes it feel essential to the larger cannon. It's not a sensationalized form of mental illness. It's all too real, joining the likes of Sylvia Plath's "The Bell Jar" in terms of honesty.
While "Mrs. Dalloway" isn't the first book to take place over 24 hours, it ranks among the best of this motif. While nowhere near as challenging as James Joyce's behemoth "Ulysses," it manages to condense the ideas into a manner that are reflective of Woolf's interests and finds the reader engaging with something less physical. The idea is to enter the mind of others and discover what makes them unique. It's a powerful work and one that reflects in its brisk space a sense of unity. Everyone has their own daily missions, but are they feeling fulfilled by them? In a crowd, does everyone not feel lonely? Woolf was a delicate writer who knew how to replace the physicality of the world and emphasize emotions. The reader may not fully know what the world around them looks like, but this approach allows it to feel the atmosphere and transport them to someplace that is much more opaque and inaccessible. In this way, Woolf has created a work that seeks to remind everyone the power of being alive every day. It's a complicated thing, but very much worth exploring.
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